20th Anniversary Update PTR Development Notes: September 18th

Here are this week’s 20th Anniversary Update PTR notes:

CLASSES

• DRUID
  • Balance
    • Circle of Life and Death causes Moonfire, Sunfire, Stellar Flare, and Starfall to deal their damage in 15% less time (was 20%).
      • Developer’s note: We are keeping an eye on this talent. Our intent is that it’s an appealing option for players who enjoy it or for certain fights where it’s strong. We recognize that not all players enjoy updating DoTs more frequently, especially in sustained AOE, so we want to ensure there are other options of comparable power for those players.
• HUNTER
  • Hero Talents
    • Dark Ranger
      • Extra Black Arrows from Withering Fire will now apply their periodic effect.
        • Developer’s note: For tuning reasons, Withering Fire’s extra arrows do not trigger most ancillary Black Arrow effects. The periodic damage effect is an exception to this rule to allow for deeper synergies with talents like Phantom Pain.
    • Beast Mastery
      • Frenzy’s Personal Resource Display aura has had its duration corrected.
    • Marksmanship
      • Wailing Arrow no longer consumes Trick Shots.
      • Fixed an issue that prevented Wailing Arrow from benefitting from Hydra’s Bite.
    • Survival
      • Bombardier’s aura is now removed at more reasonable times.
      • Spearhead’s cast animation now blends with other animations.
• MAGE
  • Alter Time’s visuals have been updated.
  • Hero Talents
    • Frostfire
      • Frostfire Burst’s visuals have been updated.
    • Spellslinger
      • Splintering Orbs can now generate a maximum of 6 Splinters (was 4 Splinters).
    • Sunfury
      • Spellfire Spheres are now anchored relative to your chest’s position.
  • Arcane
    • Spellslinger
      • Developer’s note: Adjustments to Arcane’s talents and Frost’s updates to Splinterstorm have reduced the power of Spellslinger considerably. We’re aware of these issues and will continue to make changes as necessary.
      • Arcane Splinter damage increased by 30%.
      • Fixed an issue where Splinterstorm damage was not equal to Splinter damage.
      • Spellfrost Teachings chance to trigger increased to 5%.
    • Sunfury
      • Arcane Soul’s overlay has been updated.
  • Fire
    • Hyperthermia’s overlay has been updated.
  • Frost
    • Spellslinger
      • Developer’s note: Adjustments to Arcane’s talents and Frost’s updates to Splinterstorm have reduced the power of Spellslinger considerably. We’re aware of these issues and will continue to make changes as necessary.
      • Frost Splinter damage increased by 60%.
      • Spellfrost Teachings chance to trigger increased to 5%.
      • Spellfrost Teachings Orb damage bonus on proc increased to 30% (was 20%).
• SHAMAN
  • Enhancement
    • Flowing Spirits now correctly grants the Feral Spirit buff associated with their elements.
    • Molten Thunder chance to trigger increased by 60%.
    • Totemic
      • An issue causing Whirling Earth to not be consumed has been resolved.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS

• Timewalking dungeons will now scale enemies to your current level as opposed to scaling you to the level of the dungeon.
  • Developer’s note: Timewalking now uses the same scaling system as Chromie Time, allowing us to better maintain Timewalking dungeons and control their intended tuning.

USER INTERFACE AND ACCESSIBILITY

• CHARACTER SELECT SCREEN
  • New characters that are created are now placed into the campfire scene if there is room, and directly under the scene in the list if there is not.
• WARBAND BANK
  • Reagents stored in the Warband bank can now be used to fill all types of crafting orders.
• Accounts that fall under Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) will now have the “Block Guild Invites” setting turned on by default.
• When logged in to a character, the AddOn List dropdown will now default to that character rather than All.
• Lore objects map icons have been adjusted for better visibility.